JPL Intranet

The Library Board met last Thursday. I’ve highlighted some of what was discussed below.

• Per the city ordinance, the library must submit an annual report to the city council after the end of each fiscal year. Kelly McAlister, the board president, presented this year’s report Monday. Links to the report and presentation are included below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6lTezDMYi83azJ5NjAySUtURUk/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6lTezDMYi83cWxTTVgwa0g2M00/view?usp=sharing

• Foundation Board member Linda Kading recently retired and is moving from Johnston. We’ve found two new residents willing to serve: Rebecca Janni and Heidi Kroner. Rebecca is a teacher and children’s author who has done a number of book readings for the library’s Youth Services department. Heidi is founder of Literacy Lifeline, “a non-profit organization dedicated to raising money for families and people in need of assistance in their pursuit of grade-level reading, writing and spelling.” Their first meeting will be November 2nd. The Foundation is excited to have them aboard.
• Members of the MagNet digital magazine consortium—which includes Ankeny, Urbandale, Norwalk, Altoona, Pleasant Hill, Bondurant, Indianola, Winterset, and Grimes—met recently to discuss our annual renewal. At this meeting, we look at the past years’ circulation numbers and decide which subscriptions to drop and which to add. The Altoona Public Library is a new member this year. With this additional funding, we’ll likely add several new subscriptions.

Our bi-monthly all-staff meeting will be held this Thursday at 8am.

All, 

The election office just called and JPL WILL be a satellite in-person early voting location for the general election. 

This will be available from October 17-October 28, Monday through Friday from 10am to 4pm and on Saturday October 29 from 10-4. They will be located in the meeting room hallway. 

Detailed info is available at http://www.cityofjohnston.com/index.aspx?NID=636

Please ask Beth if you have questions. 

A blank time sheet now available under the “Printables” menu.

Micah Chaplin’s last regularly scheduled day will be Sunday, September 25. She will be missed. Thanks for making JPL a better place to work and visit, Micah!

Please join us for a staff gathering to celebrate Karla’s 15 years of service at JPL! 

All, 

As election day gets closer, we are going to start getting inundated with voting questions. I have added a page on the website that contains links that tell people how to:

• check if they are registered to vote already
• register to vote
• update voter information
• request an absentee ballot
• track an absentee ballot
• find their polling place
• vote early through in-person absentee ballots at the Polk County Auditor’s office beginning Sept 29 through Nov 7
• and vote early with satelitte in-person absentee ballots at Johnston Public Library Monday through Friday, 10-4 from October 17-October 28 and on Saturday, October 29 from 10-4. 

Info is here: http://www.cityofjohnston.com/index.aspx?NID=636

After reviewing 46 applications, interviewing 9 candidates, and endlessly discussing–with Molly, Beth, and Lynne—the merits and demerits of them all, I’ve offered the Youth Services Librarian position to Megan Sockness. Megan is currently the Youth Services Librarian at Washington County Libraries in Minnesota. Her resume, cover letter, and references are linked below. Megan will start in early October. Please welcome our new hire and help her see how great working at JPL can be.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6lTezDMYi83cDJmeURGeVFWNmc?usp=sharing

Location: Stephens Auditorium, Iowa State Center – Doors open at 6:15

“Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. The book and 2014 movie adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon recounts how at age 22, shattered by her mother’s death and the end of her young marriage, Strayed decides to confront her emotional pain by trekking more than 1,000 miles from the Mojave Desert to the Oregon-Washington border. Now in her forties, Strayed is the cohost with Steve Almond of Dear Sugar Radio, an advice podcast for the lost, lonely and heartsick produced by WBUR Radio. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and holds an MFA in fiction writing from Syracuse University. Her other books include the advice essay collection Tiny Beautiful Things and the novel Torch. She is also a regular columnist for the New York Time Book Review.

In her memoir Wild Cheryl Strayed describes the sometimes harrowing, other times hilarious stories behind her solo wilderness trek on the Pacific Crest Trail and the personal journey that led her there. In this talk, Strayed will discuss what she learned about how we bear the unbearable, how we move from grief and anger to acceptance, and how we keep walking even when it seems impossible to stand.”

http://amespubliclibrary.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=12056

Circulation staff will no longer distribute guest passes. Patrons will be directed to the Public Services Desk or Youth Services Desk.

The west most Commons door was not latching last night. Peg was able to wrangle it closed and lasso it shut. I stopped in this morning and was able to get the latch working and temporarily brace it closed. A crew will be out Tuesday to fix everything. Until then, please leave the barricade in front of the doors.

• The Study: http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/
  

• A growing share of Americans are reading e-books on tablets and smartphones rather than dedicated e-readers, but print books remain much more popular than books in digital formats
• The share of Americans who have read a book in the last year is largely unchanged since 2012; more Americans read print books than either read e-books or listen to audio books
• Nearly four-in-ten Americans read print books exclusively; just 6% are digital-only book readers

The Johnston schools dropped off a copy of the 2016 Iowa Youth Survey for residents to review. It will be kept at the reference desk.

We could use another burst of staff picks for display in the online catalog. Follow the link under “Staff Resources” top get started (this section is for Adult & YA titles only).

Eric

A new Conduct in the Library Policy was approved by the Library Board. The new policy will formally take effect Monday, September 5^th.

To track conduct violations, Youth Services and Public Services staff will be submitting reports via a new intranet page linked under the “Helping Patrons” menu (to the left).

Non-behavior related incidents should continue to be reported via incident reports.

Staff from other departments are not expected to submit conduct reports but should refer behavior issues to YS or PS staff.

All PAC functionality has been restored. The “forgot your password” feature now sends a new password to the patron via email (instead of sending their existing password). Please let me know if you hear of any problems.

If someone has forgotten their photo ID or library card, they cannot checkout. Sometimes we need to help patrons figure out an alternative. If it is a kid, ask them if the person that brought them can check it out for them. If it is an adult, offer to hold the item at the Circulation Desk for a couple of days. Please explain to patrons that we require a library card or photo ID to checkout items in order to protect cardholders. If they press the issue, please send them to the Circulation Desk. Circulation staff will receive further clarification from me.

We received 46 applications for the YS Librarian position. We will finish an initial round of interviews with 9 candidates next week and will schedule a second, more informal interview with three or four of the best candidates for the following week. The rest of the timeline for the hiring process is included below.

• Present hire to Library Board on 9/15 and to City Council 9/19

• New hire will start Monday 10/10